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Elmira History: The story behind the grand Pennsylvania Ave. home where Monro now stands

Diane Janowski, Special to the Elmira Star-Gazette
Published 8:00 p.m. ET May 2, 2020

CLOSE

Traffic flows on the new Elmira roundabout, which connects North Main Street with Third Street and Park Place.
Wochit

I found a photograph dated 1877 of an old mansard-roofed house with the name Christian Assauer on the back with a date, but no address.

I was hoping that I could make a then-and-now comparison with the current house. It was most definitely a home of an affluent person. Under close inspection with a magnifying glass, there is a stately older gentleman in the middle, surrounded by a younger couple with two children, and an older woman. Another gentleman is seemingly mowing the grass. A big parrot in a cage is in the front yard. I guessed that it was in the Near Westside neighborhood because of its grandiosity.

A closeup view of Assauer family.(Photo: Provided)

I called my friend, realtor Shane Searfoss, who knows everything about old and new houses in Elmira. He said there aren’t many mansard homes left locally and that he did not recognize it. So, my Plan B was to figure out its location. The city directories between 1875 and 1897 listed Mr. Assauer at 215 Pennsylvania Ave.

A quick search for Christian Assauer found that he was born in Germany in 1817 and came to New York City in 1846. After his first wife died, he married his second wife, Mary, and moved to Elmira and sold real estate.

I believe Christian Assauer is the stately man in the center, maybe his daughter and son-in-law next to him, his niece and grandson. I can’t guess the older woman’s or the smiling lawnmower’s relationships.

So what became of that big, beautiful house?

A view of the Assauer home in 1877, corner of Pennsylvania and Spaulding Streets. Image courtesy of the author.(Photo: Provided)

In the early days, this stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue was part of the Sly farm in the Town of Southport. Many elegant homes lined this street. On the corner of Sly and Maple, pioneer John Sly built his home in 1795. Pennsylvania Avenue joined Sly Street about a block south. It was known as the Plank Road or Toll Road and went all the way to the Pennsylvania state line. Pennsylvania Avenue was a toll road constructed from planks, so that farmers would not have to drag their wagons through the mud on the way to and from Elmira. It lasted from 1848 to the late 1880s.

In 1876, Spaulding Street opened to Pennsylvania Avenue. Previously, it had only stretched between Catherine and Miller streets. Between Pennsylvania Avenue and Catherine Street was a vacant lot. Earlier maps showed a house on the lot, but it must have burned down. Eminent domain claimed the lot to complete Spaulding Street.

Assauer was one of many men who owned several pieces of property in the area, including the vacant lot. Assauer was very lucky, as his house was now a desirable corner property. In 1889, Mr. Assauer lost his second daughter and, in 1893, his second wife.

He had this big house, yet he was all alone.

A niece came to live with him. Mr. Assauer died in 1897, leaving an estate that was worth over $50,000 (or $1.5 million today). It went to his nieces, nephews and grandson. His live-in niece, Carrie Hart, got the house. The house eventually passed out of the family. In the years after his death, many families had called the address home.

A map of the area dated 1896.(Photo: Provided)

The last mention of Christian Assauer in local newspapers was Dec. 14, 1994, when his former property tract on Lormore Street was being sold.

The old house was still there in the city directory of 1968. The Hartman family owned it. Either Urban Renewal got it around the time of the flood, or it was deemed unfixable after the flood. I am not sure when its demolition came, but the property was foreclosed upon in 1979 and went to the City of Elmira.

Monro Muffler moved from Diven Plaza to Mr. Assauer’s lot on Pennsylvania Avenue in December 1982 and is still at that location.

Diane Janowski is the Elmira City historian. Her column appears monthly.